Penny shows Koko videos of male zoo gorillas, so that she can select the one(s) she is most attracted to. It's generally a thumbs-up, thumbs-down process. After a while, Koko sees Ndume on the screen, and gives the screen a big kiss — he's obviously the one. Within months, a young Ndume came to live with Koko at Read more

Although Koko was more subdued on her 32nd birthday than on her 31st, she enjoyed her feast foods (especially the new ones) and opening her many gifts and cards, which she spent more time examining than last year.
She started the day with her ritual birthday walk, which began at 7:45 AM, and took her from Read more

Koko has a vocabulary of over 1000 signs (American Sign Language) most of which she learned during the first few years of the project. However, she continues to learn (and occasionally invent) new signs, to improve her ability to communicate with her caregivers.
In this 1-minute video clip, the sign for"butterfly" Read more

Koko is looking at a sign language dictionary and points to the sign "wet" in the book. Penny tries to explain the sign to Koko. Then Penny notices that Koko's tongue is "brilliant pink" (Koko had been drawing with non-toxic marker pens, which she tried to taste). To show Koko how pink her tongue is, Penny brings a Read more

In this video Koko has just blown a kiss to a caregiver job applicant who was leaving he premises, as Penny enters and asks Koko to demonstrate some of her other pre-fabricated vocalizations. In particular, Penny asks Koko to do her "fake sneeze," which she easily accommodates. Some researchers claim that great apes Read more

Koko likes to experiment with many forms of art and technology. Though she has primarily dabbled in painting (see her amazing representational Gorilla Art) she has recently taken up an interest in music too.
Here Koko tries out a new, flexible, electronic keyboard, and improvises a little tune (music and rhythm) Read more

In this video, Penny play-acts with Koko, asking her to make believe Penny's pen is a microphone. Koko plays along, and after first kissing the "microphone" does a "huff" vocalization, which she often uses when playing with a telephone or microphone. It seems to be her way of imitating talking — which she clearly Read more

This is an excerpt from the introduction to the Meet Koko introduction video. It introduces Project Koko, and features Dr. Penny Patterson, its principle investigator, describing an important insight she gained very shortly after beginning to work with Koko on the first ever interspecies communication study involving Read more